Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A band of tough, inelastic fibrous tissue that connects a muscle with its bony attachment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A band or layer of dense fibrous tissue at the end of a muscle for attachment to a hard part, or interposed between two muscular bellies, usually where the direction of the muscle is changed; a sinew: said especially of such structures when rounded or cord-like, very broad flat tendons being commonly called fasciæ and aponeuroses.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) A tough insensible cord, bundle, or band of fibrous connective tissue uniting a muscle with some other part; a sinew.
  • noun (Physiol.) a kind of reflex act in which a muscle is made to contract by a blow upon its tendon. Its absence is generally a sign of disease. See Knee jerk, under Knee.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anatomy A tough band of inelastic fibrous tissue that connects a muscle with its bony attachment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a cord or band of inelastic tissue connecting a muscle with its bony attachment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin tendō, tendōn-, alteration (influenced by Latin tendere, to stretch) of Greek tenōn; see ten- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French tendon.

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